Polyurethanes (including polyurethaneureas) can be used as adhesives for various substrates, including textile fabrics. Typically, such polyurethanes are either fully formed non-reactive polymers or reactive isocyanate-terminated prepolymers. Such reactive polyurethane adhesives often require extended curing time to develop adequate bonding strength, which can be a disadvantage in manufacturing processes. In addition, the isocyanate groups of the polyurethanes are known to be sensitive to moisture, which limits the storage stability and reduces the shelf life of the product incorporating such polyurethanes.
Typically, such polymers, when fully formed, are either dissolved in a solvent (solvent borne), dispersed in water (water borne), or processed as thermoplastic solid materials (hot melt). Notably, solvent-based adhesives face ever-tightening health and environmental legislation aimed at reducing volatile organic compound (VOC) and hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions. Accordingly, alternatives to conventional solvent-based products are needed.
Hot-melt adhesives, although environmentally safe and easily applied as films, generally have high set and poor recovery when subject to repeated stretch cycles. Therefore, improvements are needed.
Many attempts have been made to develop water borne polyurethane adhesives to overcome these deficiencies.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,433 discloses an “adhesive composition comprising a substantially clear and solvent-free, aqueous, one-component polyurethane dispersion containing the reaction products of (a) a polyol mixture comprising polypropylene glycol, (b) a mixture of polyfunctional isocyanates comprising α,α,α1,α1-tetramethyl xylene diisocyanate (TMXDI), (c) a functional component capable of salt formation in aqueous solution, and (d) optionally, a chain-extending agent.” The adhesive films from this composition have low recovery power and poor heat resistance in view of the unsymmetrical structure and steric hindrance of isocyanate groups on TMXDI, preventing the formation of strong inter-chain urea hydrogen bonds in the hard segments of the polymer.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0014880 A1 discloses an aqueous polyurethane dispersion for adhesive bonding in wet and dry laminations stated to have superior coatability, adhesive strength and heat resistance. This dispersion contains a substantial amount of organic solvent—methyl ethyl ketone (MEK).
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0220463 A1 discloses a method for making a polyurethane dispersion that is free of organic solvent such as N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP). However, the composition is limited to a prepolymer having low free diisocyanate species, such as methylene bis(4-phenylisocyanate) (4,4′-MDI). The process to produce such a prepolymer with low free diisocyanate is complicated (as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,703,193). Such processing also requires short path distillation of the free diisocyanate and is thus not economical in producing a prepolymer for making a polyurethane dispersion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,181 discloses a stable aqueous polyurethane dispersion, containing N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) solvent, prepared by reaction of carboxylic group-containing oxime-blocked, isocyanate-terminated prepolymer and polyamine. The prepolymer is made by reaction of aromatic diisocyanates, such as 4,4′-diphenylmethanediisocyanate (MDI) or toluene diisocyanate (TDI), with polyether or polyester polyols and a dihydroxy alkanoic acid. The oxime-blocked isocyanate groups are capable of reacting with polyamine at 60 to 80° C. within 6 to 18 hours. The dispersion is stable in storage, and the film formed from the dispersion has good tensile properties. However, this dispersion still has organic solvent present and the longer curing time needed is unsuitable for fabric bonding and lamination in practice.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,563,208 describes an acetone process to prepare an essentially solvent-free aqueous polyurethane dispersion, comprising urethane prepolymers with blocked isocyanate groups and polyamines within the molecular weight range of 60 to 400 in a molar ratio of blocked isocyanate groups to primary and/or secondary amino groups of from 1:0.9 to 1:1.5. This dispersion is stable in storage at room temperatures and gives a heat-resistant binder in coating. It requires long curing time (up to 30 minutes), which is still not suitable for fabric bonding and adhesion. Furthermore, the acetone process requires an additional distillation step to remove the acetone from the dispersion, which makes this process less economical.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,586,523 describes an acetone process for preparing a self-crosslinking polyurethane dispersion for sizing agents, comprising a prepolymer with isocyanate groups partially blocked and partially extended, and excess polyfunctional compounds having molecular weights from 32 to 500 with primary or secondary amino and/or hydroxyl groups. This dispersion composition reduces the curing time to some degree, but still has deficiencies because an additional distillation step to remove the acetone is required.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,555,613 describes a solvent-free aqueous dispersion of a reactive polyurethane having a number average molecular weight (Mn) of from 800 to 14,000, a degree of branching of from 0.0 to 3.0 mol/kg, and an isocyanate functionality from 2.0 to 6.0 per mole. The polyurethane is made from a polyester polyol, a polyisocyanate and polyisocyanate adduct, with low molecular weight polyol and anion-forming units after neutralizing incorporated in the polymer chains, and with blocked isocyanate groups capable of further reactions for crosslinking. The result of such dispersion is a coating material that is hard, glossy and elastic, but such coating material does not have the elastomeric features and stretch/recovery properties required for an adhesive to be used with stretch fabrics.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved aqueous polyurethane dispersion, which overcomes one or more of the deficiencies of the prior art.